In a typical service plan such as a wireless calling plan, customers generally purchase a predetermined number of service units (e.g., minutes) per billing cycle. For example, a wireless phone customer may sign up for a billing plan costing $50 for 2000 minutes per month. With typical service plans, any unused service units at the end of the billing cycle are lost or they expire. This type of plan can be frustrating for the customer who consistently loses unused service minutes that they have paid for.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,457,777 provides one option for unused service units by “rolling over” unused service units at the end of the billing cycle. This option may not be completely satisfactory for many customers because the customer never receives money back for unused service units. Furthermore, if the customer accumulates a large amount of unused service units over time, the customer may lose the benefits of these service units if the customer moves to another service provider at the end of the calling plan.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that implements a service plan that pays money back to the customer for unused service units remaining at the end of a billing cycle.
In one embodiment, the calling plans provides a predetermined number of service units per billing cycle. In another embodiment, the customer deposits money into a cash account which is used to pay for service units as they are used.
In one embodiment, the total “payback” amount is calculated by multiplying the total number of unused minutes times a predetermined payback rate. In the preferred embodiment, the customer is paid back the calculated payback amount or a set maximum payback amount, whichever is the smaller amount.
The total payback amount can be based on one type of perishable service unit (e.g., minutes) or it can be based on a combination of a plurality of service unit types. For example, in one embodiment, the total payback amount will be calculated based on combination of the number of unused calling minutes, unused text messages, unused emails, unused data or data storage (e.g., Mb or kb), and/or unused Internet service units. It is appreciated that the payback rate applied to each of these types of service units may vary.